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A little more than two years after he was hired to turn around the struggling Sears Canada department store chain, president and CEO Calvin McDonald is leaving for another job, it was announced Tuesday.

The move comes halfway through what McDonald called his three-year transformational plan for the ailing department store retailer, which had lost relevance with its core customer base when he was hired from Loblaw Companies Ltd. in June 2011.

McDonald’s departure was not welcomed by some retail analysts who said it’s a bad idea for Sears Canada Inc. to change leaders in the middle of a retail war.

McDonald, 41, will be replaced by American Douglas Campbell, 43, who joined Sears Canada three months before McDonald in 2011. Campbell was appointed chief operating officer in November. He is a former U.S. Marine officer.

The former CEO is moving to a firm with an international presence, but the name is not being released, said Sears Canada spokesman Vincent Power.

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“It’s kind of hard to find logic in a lot of what has happened at Sears,” said Maureen Atkinson, senior partner, research insights, J.C. Williams Group.

Retail analyst Keith Howlett of Desjardins Securities rated the move as negative, saying the departure of the CEO at this time reduces probability of a turnaround.

“Our view was that McDonald was a talented, energetic retail executive and might have been able to accomplish a turnaround against what we perceive as long odds,” he wrote in a note to investors on Tuesday morning.

“Our speculation is that McDonald may have held differing views from those of the controlling shareholder, Sears Holdings, on the appropriate level of capital spending for store renovations, on the sale of under-market leases back to landlords (Yorkdale, Mississauga Square One and others) and with respect to the outsourcing of head office positions to other countries.”

Sears Holdings Corporation in the U.S. holds a 51-per cent stake in the Canadian operation.

Paul Swinand, an analyst with Morningstar in the U.S., also said he believes the departure was likely to result of clashes with Eddie Lampert, the investor who controls Sears Holdings, over where to take the company, noting several executives who’ve worked with Lampert have left after short stints.

Sears Canada spokesman Vince Power disputed reports that McDonald was leaving due to a disagreement with majority shareholder Sears Holdings Corp., saying he was unaware of any dispute and insisting the reason for McDonald’s departure is the new job opportunity, as he credited Campbell with playing a leading role in the recent success of the company’s major appliances business.

George Minakakis, a retail expert and former executive with eyewear retailer Luxottica Group, said the move comes at a critical time for the company.

“If they veer off from their current path of cleaning up their product lines and developing new ones, they will lose what momentum they have begun to establish in sales,” said Minakakis, pointing out that McDonald has done a good job of increasing apparel sales.

He said the changes are also having a positive effect on customers and even internally, effecting a cultural change at the retailer.

Liane Davey, a vice-president at Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions, said McDonald’s experience at Loblaw Cos., combined with his department store experience would make him an attractive target for a company like Target, which has stumbled badly in the Canadian market since launching in March.

Atkinson said the next move for Sears Canada could be a real-estate play, perhaps a real estate investment trust.

“Considering what they got for their stores, can you imagine what the downtown store is worth,” said Atkinson.

Sears received $170-million from Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited for giving back long-term leases for stores in the Vancouver Pacific Centre, Calgary Chinook Centre and the Ottawa Rideau Centre. In June, it announced $191-million deal for its locations at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Square One in Mississauga, for $191-million.

The downtown Toronto store overlooks Dundas Square.

The move comes as other retailers, including Walmart, Costco and Target, are expanding across the country, and ahead of the arrival in Canada of U.S. department store retailers Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue.

In August, McDonald announced a decline in revenues but emphasized that some sectors, such as accessories and apparel sales, were doing well.

Also in August, the company was forced to admit it was outsourcing hundreds of information technology jobs in eliminating 245 head office jobs.

McDonald was awarded $1,061,658 in compensation by Sears Canada in 2012, according to public documents.

That included his annual salary of $800,000 and a $250,000 cash retention payment negotiated when he joined the firm in June, 2011, and $11,658 in other compensation.

Because the company failed to meet targets, he was not awarded any long or short term incentive bonuses. According to public company documents, he was not awarded any stock or stock options.

If he stayed with the firm until 2015, he would have earned $250,000 cash retention payments in each year.

Under his contract with Sears, McDonald would be paid additional sums only if he were fired without cause or quit as a result of his base salary being reduced or if he had been removed from the board of directors.

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